Ohio State surgeon sues doctor, hospital for sexual discrimination

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A federal Title IX lawsuit has been filed against Ohio State University and the chairperson of the university’s department of orthopedics, who is accused of sex discrimination and retaliation.

The lawsuit was filed by one of Ohio State’s orthopedic trauma surgeons, who said her personal and professional reputation has been damaged – she was demoted without cause and the harassment is ongoing.

“I feel that we have so many talented surgeons, male and female researchers, and we really deserve to be able to work in a place that you don't have fear of being able to speak up and to voice concerns,” Ohio State orthopedic trauma surgeon Dr. Laura Phieffer said.

Phieffer is consistently nationally ranked at the top of her field, even though only 6% of orthopedic surgeons in the United States are women.

“So as a woman coming into the field of orthopedics, I was the first woman faculty here, I was the first female program director here at OSU,” Phieffer said. “At the time, we only had one female orthopedic resident. Over the 14 years, I helped change that landscape by restructuring our residency interviews so that we became more of a diverse residency program.”

To that end, Phieffer was pushing Ohio State to hire a renowned, experienced female surgeon for an open position on the trauma orthopedics. The recruit was qualified and experienced, but at another university where that surgeon was a mandatory reporter, she had reported sexual harassment complaints.

“When it became clear or known that this was someone who had reported and spoke up against sexual harassment, people came in, started offering opinions who had never worked with her, in a sense, trying to blackball her,” Phieffer said.

Dr. Phieffer said it worked because the chairperson of the department of orthopedics at Ohio State, Dr. Andrew Glassman, stopped the interview process and refused to consider the candidate.

Phieffer spoke out about the situation.

“I spoke directly to Dr. Glassman,” she said.

That was nearly four years ago. The candidate was not hired by Ohio State and everything changed for Phieffer.

“There was a pivotal shift in our relationship after that, and then he really went on a campaign to target me and try to undermine my authority, tried to ruin professional relationships I had at the university, and even went as far as to say falsehoods to national leaders when they came in to do a review of our department, so really jeopardizing my opportunities at OSU and a career elsewhere,” Phieffer said.

She claims Glassman protected male surgeons but mistreated women. When Phieffer and two other women filed a formal complaint last November, she was demoted and that a less qualified man replaced her as chief of trauma.

“Dr. Glassman warned me when we were having these conversations to be circumspect about me raising any gender bias concerns,” she said. “He basically told me, ‘Don't bring it up. This is not going to work for you.’”

Now she is taking her case to federal court.

“So I hope that there's some guardrails put into place,” Phieffer said. “I do believe that a university should maintain those type of high standards, and so that, that's really what I'm hopeful, that the university does something about this leader.”

Phieffer still works at Ohio State and hopes to be restored to the position of chief of orthopedic trauma.

Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center did not want Glassman to be interviewed, but did issue the following statement:

“The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is committed to a welcoming environment for all employees and has no tolerance for harassment or discrimination of any kind.

“We cannot comment further due to the pending litigation.”